


Do you love him?

by exhaustedwerewolf



Series: 30 Day Post Challenge [7]
Category: The Shapeshifter & Unleashed - Ali Sparkes
Genre: Alternate title: where is my mother bleeping sparren closure, M/M, Post Burning Beach, Pre Feather & Fang, When I started writing this Clive didn't have a canon surname, definitley has some Clive/Darren undertones but
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2016-11-07
Packaged: 2018-08-29 18:29:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8500540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exhaustedwerewolf/pseuds/exhaustedwerewolf
Summary: Set shortly after the events of Burning Beach. Darren sits in the sun outside Fenton Lodge. Clive won't let him face it alone.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "hollow."

Darren was sitting against one of the walls of Fenton Lodge. The sun shone, the sky stretched infinitely, the kind of deep blue hue synonymous with summer. Darren's eyes remained cast downward. He could feel the bricks through his thin school shirt, and shifted uncomfortably. Why had he and Spook ever picked this spot in the first place? It was rather unpleasant, tending towards dampness for most of the year, though not today. The trees sighed luxuriously in the breeze. Darren thought that if this wasn't Fenton, but the wall of a normal school, this was where the older kids would come to smoke cigarettes. 

A small part of Darren considered leaving when he heard Clive's footsteps- he knew it was Clive. He couldn't say why. Maybe it was just that he knew it wouldn't be any of the others. Still, Darren didn't stir when Clive settled himself down nearby. He removed his glasses, cleaned them on the edge of his shirt, replaced them. Then he closed his eyes anyway, leaning his head back against the wall. 

They sat in silence for a while. Darren's eyes didn't leave the palms of his hands, which rested on his knees. He was examining them both, idly and without conviction, considering the curve of his wrists, the bend in each finger. The sudden close purring of a honey bee made Darren avert his gaze and Clive startle, but it was gone almost as soon as it has arrived, and they were settling back into motionlessness, when;

"Do you love him?" 

Darren flicked his eyes over to appraise Clive. After a second, he finally turned his attention back to the scar- or what would become a scar, and was now more of a gash crudely sealed with a plaster. He could read volumes from every detail- its path initially smooth, a falter, where it splayed out to one side, continued more shakily and then stopped abruptly. He turned his hand about, examining the redness of the wound in the sunlight, and wondered vaguely if Mia could've erased it beyond recognition if he could have asked. 

"I'm deciding." He replied. 

Clive was also looking at the scar. He made no effort to disguise his examination. Darren appreciated this. 

"Seems to me you decided a long time ago."

Darren's appreciation immediately withered. He finally looked at Clive properly- his expression would've looked harmless on anyone else, but coming from Darren it amounted to a glare. 

"What's that supposed to mean? That's hardly helpful. I thought you were supposed to be the logical one."

Clive shrugged, unfazed. "Is it true?" 

Darren balked, and looked away. He sighed tiredly. 

"No. Probably. Yes." With his unharmed hand, he indicated the plaster. "What does it look like to you?"

Clive gave a half smile. "Like oxytocin can make a guy do pretty crazy things?" He shook his head. "This is hardly my area of expertise, Darren." Darren huffed through his nose and dropped his hands to his sides.

"How are the others?"

Clive ached an eyebrow. "They're fine, Darren. Or, they will be. How are you?"

"Are you trying to talk this conversation in circles?"

Clive kicked his trainers feebly. They thudded down onto the grass in succession; a semi crochet. 

"I'm trying to get you to talk to me, Darren. Because God knows you won't go to anyone else with this. You never do." Darren dug his fingernails into the dirt.

"I'm not upset, okay?"

"Please, Darren. Of course you're upset-"

"I'm not just saying that, either!" Darren almost raised his voice, working his fingers agitatedly. "I don't feel sad, or whatever it is that everyone is-!" Wit, he turned so that he was facing away from Clive. "I just feel... It's in my chest, it's like..." He trailed off, unwilling to finish, staring off down the rest of the wall.

"Hollow?" Suggested Clive. 

"It's stupid, right?" Darren squeezed his eyes shut. "It's so stupid." He whispered.

"It's not stupid, Darren."

"It is stupid." Darren argued, exasperated to feel tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. "It's stupid, idiotic, thick. I did this," he shook his hand roughly, "for a boy who hadn't spoken to me properly in months, who I knew for a fact was keeping secrets from me, who disappeared two times in the space of a year, and wouldn't even tell me where he'd been. I did this for a boy who didn't even ask me to go with him." 

He didn't even notice that he was crying- really crying, hot tears rolling down his cheeks, until Clive slammed into him, hugging him fiercely. 

"He just left me." Darren mumbled into Clive's shoulder. "After everything we've been through-" his voice cracked and he laughed without humour. "God. God. I sound so pathetic."

"It's not pathetic," Clive said sharply, drawing back but still holding him firmly. "You've got to stop saying that!" Darren mopped at his face with his sweater sleeve, feeling so distant he could hardly feel embarrassed for himself. "You're not going to get over this overnight, and you don't have to." 

Darren stared, his brown eyes empty. Clive felt anger rising like bile in his throat, but swallowed it down for the sake of the boy in front of him.

"Do you think Lisa is being pathetic for being upset about Mia?"

Darren shook his head mutely.

"What about Dax? Gideon?"

"Where are you going with this?" 

"I'm just saying-! I'm saying that Lisa is going to go sleep tonight with her face turned away from the bed across the room. And Dax is going to go to whisper something in her ear in Mrs Dann's class at least three times in first period tomorrow. And next time Gideon trips and falls down the stairs or something, he's going to think of finding Mia before he remembers that he can't. And you have things like that to deal with too! But you shouldn't have to do it alone. And don't blame yourself, Darren Tyler. Not for one second."

Darren dropped his head in surrender, and wiped his shirtsleeve over his face.

"C'mon." Clive said, softer now. "Let's go find you some tissues, or something." He got to his feet, brushing grass from his trousers. "And hey," he added, holding out a hand to Darren. "I think the common room is free. We can put some decent music on for once without Lisa criticising every other line. How does that sound?" 

After a pause, Darren took his hand.

"Yeah, okay. ...Sounds good."


End file.
